It may be hard to believe, but tonight’s episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (10:00 p.m., WNBC 4) is the 200th episode for the first of the Law & Order spin-offs. One big difference between SVU and the mother ship is how the show over nine seasons has gone though only minimal cast changes, with the four regulars - Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson, Richard Belzer as John......

In the Law and Order universe there are two separate yet equally important constants: the format of the show and the revolving door of the actors who star in it. So it is not a surprise that Jessie L. Martin who plays Detective Green is leaving the show in the latest cast change. Series guru Dick Wolf says the parting is amicable, with Martin being burned out after playing the same character for nine years.......

Law & Order returned for its eighteenth season with two episodes last night. As producer Dick Wolf is wont to do, things on the show have changed. The cast changes have definitely skewed things younger and has made the show seem more like Law & Order: The Next Generation. Which isn't a bad thing, since it seemed more like a natural evolution. And don’t worry, we won’t reveal the endings of the episodes in......

Early this morning Hayden Panettiere and other Hollywood elite looked ready to hit the town for a night out even though it was 5:30am. They were announcing this year's Golden Globe nominees, often a good sign for who will be nominated for that other gold statue. All in all New York-based shows and movies fared well as the envelopes were opened sheets of paper were read from. 30 Rock (Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical......

Last night the 59th Annual Emmy Awards took place on the left coast, but New Yorkers made out very well. New York productions/creative types that took home the gold: Late Night with Conan O'Brien (writing), The Daily Show (variety-comedy show series), 30 Rock (best comedy), and Dick Wolf (for producing Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee). In the would-have-been arena, America Ferrera won best actress in a comedy, Ugly Betty, which was originally supposed......

Now that Law & Order has been renewed for four more seasons, shakeups to the cast have been expected. And the most notable one is that Fred Thompson, who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch, is leaving the show to pursue a presidential campaign. We hope the writers work that in! Law & Order producer Dick Wolf said, "I've spoken to Fred today, and although he told me he has not made a firm decision about......

Chung chung! NBC and producer Dick Wolf have hashed out a deal to keep Law & Order on the air for the next four years. Variety reports (subscription only) that as part of the deal, Law & Order: Criminal Intent will be moving to USA. Yes, USA (which NBC owns) will now have the first run episodes of Detective Robert Goren's histrionics, and then NBC will air repeats of L&O:CI. Interesting! NBC Universal head......

In the recent history of television, the people have been given three separate but still gritty police procedurals set in New York City: The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders in Law & Order, the dedicated Special Victims Unit detectives who investigate especially heinous sexually based offenses in Law & Order Special Victims Unit, and the Major Case Squad detectives who chew scenery as well as they suss......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a building collapse on West 193rd St. in Manhattan, a car in the water at Ocean Ave. and Lincoln Rd. in Brooklyn, and multiple manhole fires on 45th St. in Queens. The NYTimes takes a stroll down one-time Indian trail now known as Jamaica Ave. in Brooklyn. Neighbors on Mulberry St. are so fed up with the Feast of San Gennaro that Community Board 2 recommended against approving organizers'......

What a strange way for Community Board 5 to decide whether to name 53rd Street at 8th Avenue after Jerry Orbach. Last night, the board's notoriously difficult committee approved 3-2 in favor of naming the street after the great late actor. And then the full board voted in favor - 18-17 - as well. But, as the NY Times explains, "that slim margin was not enough to qualify as an approval because the votes......

Fans of Late Night with Conan O'Brien are familiar with the hilarious Pale Force cartoons that feature comedian Jim Gaffigan and O'Brien as very pasty crime fighters. But recently, the series hit a new high with the Law & Order: Pale Face story arc. While Jim and Conan investigate tanning bed murders, they go to Dick Wolf's barbecue restaurant (picture, top right) to canvas witnesses. Later, we see Lieutenant Van Buren, Detective Lenny Briscoe,......

The NY Times City section has a long feature about Law & Order's dramatization of the Adrienne Shelly murder. It was inevitable that the police procedural warhorse would cover one of the more bizarre and tragic murders in recent memory, and a casting notice for someone to play the illegal immigrant laborer who assaults an woman after she complains about construction noise confirmed that L&O would be tackling the story. The article looks at......

And not only that, they're getting Chevy Chase to star as a star who is anti-Semitic AND has blood on his clothes. What Law & Order season this will be - Cobrasnake-lite, murder victim photographs posted online on Friday's episode - we suppose the sensationalism needs to be extra high now that they are on Friday nights. Producer Dick Wolf said that they are in production for an episode about "a former television star who......

It's not the same as an invisible Snuffleupagus, but there is something very exciting happening with Sesame Street. On August 14, a segment called "Law and Order Special Letters Unit" will premiere, starting with "The Missing M." Hal Boedeker at the Orlando Sentinel reports that the actual cast voices will be used, and Dick Wolf himself said, "I feel like a tobacco company executive, because hopefully we will hook 4- and 5- and 6-year-olds......

Hold on: Alana De La Garza, last seen as Horatio's dead wife on CSI: Miami, will be playing the new ADA in Law & Order. Which means that recently announced addition Milena Govich will actually be taking over for Dennis Farina, bringing Law & Order its first female detective. (Govich played an ADA on Conviction, so that's why we were confused...now we wonder if she'll reprise her character from Conviction or maybe play that character's......

Aha, the cast changes we've been wondering about: The Hollywood Reporter says Dennis Farina is leaving, while Conviction's Milena Govich will come on board. And since Govich played an ADA on the now-cancelled Conviction, she'll probably be playing an ADA on Law & Order. Lucky for her to get another season of work, but L&O will be on Friday nights at 10PM (GASP!), moving from Wednesdays at 10PM for the first time ever, so some......

[Belated spoiler alert because we cannot believe that people weren't glued to their TV sets last night to see this crazy finale - many apologies] Attractive young actresses who look great in a suit, beware: If you're cast as the new assistant district attorney to work with Jack McCoy, your character might come to some sort of strange end. Last year - yes, just January 2005 - Elisabeth Rohm(bot) left the show and uttered those......

Even though the network media upfronts don't mean anything - except to advertisers - because schedules can be shuffled and shows killed between now and fall, Gothamist is still excited, because it's about hope (Tina Fey's new show to be good, Veronica Mars to be picked up) and new seasons of shows we love (The Office, My Name is Earl...and, heck, we can't help but watch Grey's Anatomy). Anyway, there are a lot of NYC-set......

Way back in 2004, the city announced its super duper special NYC Tax Credit Program for film and TV producers (as well as commercial, music video, etc.) in order to motivate productions to happen here, versus Los Angeles or (gasp) Toronto. And it worked really well: Lindsay Lohan made a movie, Martin Scorsese shot a set-in-Boston movie mostly here, CBS brought us Love Monkey (then cancelled it), there's another Dick Wolf TV, plus countless......

- The NY Sun and NY Times have editorials on the World Trade Center development - More World Trader Center-related controversy: Feds fund post-September 11 film that the government has no rights to - and the final film had naked people in it - The police officer shot outside White Castle was laid to rest today - Can it be? Producer Dick Wolf will produce a show with continuing plots - Nicole Richie will......

Lots of movement with Gothamist's old, reliable standby, Law & Order. First of all, NBC is moving L&O from Wednesday at 10PM to 9PM. While an hour might not mean much, it actually means our head will explode, with Lost at 9PM on Wednesdays as is Veronica Mars. But this frees up Project Runway at 10PM!! We imagine Dick Wolf is pissed off to have to go head to head with Lost, but maybe that's......

Gothamist was a bit underwhelmed by this year's Golden Globe nominees, and we were thinking of not liveblogging. But, gosh darn it as we watched the E! preshow and saw the starlets sparkle their way down the red carpet, we realize it was hopeless, so here we are. Let it be known that: - Keira Knightley looks gorgeous in her white Valentino - and there's something surprisingly youthful about the dress, even though there's that......

If only to enrage everyone else about not being in on the Internet wave, the NY Post has a little feature about the guy who has to watch Dukes of Hazzards reruns and maintain a blog with contests and interviews for the Country Music Channel. Christopher Nelson is blogging from his East Village apartment to the tune of $100,000. Gah! Gothamist thinks we remember seeing a job posting for this position, though it might have......

Gothamist thought that Detective Green's shooting in tonight's episode of Law & Order was just a neat way to let Jesse L. Martin leave the show temporarily while he shoots Rent, but someone on Flickr says that tonight will be his last episode. The episode features a shocking crime, which is a bullet to the chest of Detective Green. Say it ain't so! It's not like L&O producer Dick Wolf would want to show his......

Yesterday, people from TV, film, and Broadway, as well as the public, gathered to pay tribute to the dearly missed Jerry Orbach. The attendees included Angela Lansbury, Al Pacino, Benjamin Bratt, Chris Noth, Jill Hennessy, Jane Alexander, Karen Ziemba, and Dick Wolf, plus many regular New Yorkers who cherished Orbach's contribution as an actor. Former Mayor David Dinkins was there, and Mayor Bloomberg spoke to the crowd, saying, "Briscoe exuded the life of the city......

Last night's episode of Law & Order was amazing. The writers threw everything, including the kitchen sink. The plot surrounded the murder of a food network executive, who had been attending a fundraiser for tsunami orphans; the executive was also the wife of one celebrity chef and having an affair with another! It was compelling and very much ripped from the headlines, as well as salacious and interesting. Here are some of the highlights: -......

Dick Wolf, you sly, sly dog. Who knew that Elisabeth "Lumberyard 'cause I'm So Wooden" Rohm's last episode of Law & Order" href="http://www.nbc.com/Law_&_Order/index.html">Law & Order would be so memorable? District Attorney Arthur Branch basically fired ADA Serena Southerlyn's ass because she was too passionate and not enough fact-focused. As Southerlyn, Rohm looked as shocked as she could, and then said, "Is this because I'm a lesbian?" Hello! Gothamist was sort of hoping that Southerlyn would......

Gothamist is utterly sad to report that Jerry Orbach, the versatile actor of stage, screen, and tube who epitomized the seen-it-all cynical NYPD detective on Law & Order for twelve years, is dead at age 69. Earlier this month, Orbach's manager had confirmed to the Daily News that Orbach had been suffering from prostate cancer but was recovering, but now it seems that he succumbed. Radio station 1010 WINS was first to report Orbach's......

Gothamist was taking a look at the various auctions ShopNBC has going to raise money for Ronald McDonald House Charities. Of course, our attention was squarely on the Law & Order: SVU Walk On role, where, if you have enough dough, you get to be a non-union background performer. And there's also a L&O: Criminal Intent Fan Package as well as a L&O: SVU Fan Package, including the infamous "Law & Orderopoly" board game Dick......

Various stars were at City Hall, stumping for a city tax break on film and TV production. Well, maybe the stars were more B-list, as they were Joey Pantoliano and Ice-T. But Gothamist will let Ice-T speak for all of us:"It's kind of really wack to be in Toronto shooting a New York movie. It's not cool at all."Totally not cool at all. And it's a great day for the American dream when one day......